Priest faces federal child porn sentence

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PITTSBURGH (AP) — A suspended Pittsburgh-area priest is set for sentencing on charges he possessed and received thousands of child pornography images — some of them sadomasochistic — on his church computer.

Court records show federal prosecutors want the Rev. Bartley Sorensen to serve eight to 10 years in prison. But the defense attorney for the 63-year-old Roman Catholic priest says the mandatory five-year sentence he faces is sufficient.

Sorensen was arrested by Allegheny County district attorney’s detectives in December 2011 after an employee at Saint John Fisher Parish in Churchill noticed him looking at a photo of a young boy on his computer. Federal authorities took over the investigation after a computer search turned up thousands of images.